Today, Morgan’s football team is scheduled to play against Norfolk State’s Spartans during their homecoming hoping to break their five-game losing streak.
Both teams seek their first win in the MEAC conference, as they are both 0-1 in MEAC conference games.
The Bears lost to the North Carolina Central Eagles 16-10 Thursday — their fifth loss of the season. The Bears have won only one game, which was against the Richmond Spiders on Sept. 2 and ended with the score 17-10.
The Spartans have won two games, one against the Hampton Pirates and the other one against the Towson Tigers.
Last week, the Bears’ defense held off the Eagles, whose season average is 35 points per game. Morgan held the Eagles to only 16 points and 201 yards of total offense. The Bears also sacked the reigning MEAC player of the year and held him to 122 passing yards.
The Bears’ defense has been an obstacle for every team they have faced this season — as they held the Eagles to 79 rushing yards, the Albany Great Danes to 108 rushing yards and the Akron Zips to just four.
Throughout their six games this season, the Bears only allowed four rushing touchdowns and allowed 2.7 yards per carry across all opponents. The Bears offense has averaged 13 points per game this season.
Damon Wilson, Bears head football coach, said that the Bears need to score more on offense, protect the ball and prevent turnovers offensively.
“We must stop the run because these guys are pretty good and they have a lot of explosive plays this year,” Wilson said as he described the Spartans’ offense.
The Spartans are dominant in the run game as they average 182.7 yards per game and 4.2 yards per attempt.
However, the Spartans’ defense has also given up a lot of rushing yards. Their opponents average 226 yards per game and 5.9 yards per attempt, which enabled their opponents to gain 16 total touchdowns this season.
Redshirt freshman Offensive Lineman Mosula Tapusoa said he is confident heading into this game.
The Bears lost to the Spartans 24-21 on Oct. 8, 2022. The Spartans made a successful drive down the field in the fourth quarter with only seconds left in the game, scoring the game-winning touchdown when they’d been down 17-21.
“We did not have the outcome we wanted last year in front of our home crowd for homecoming,” Tapusoa said. “So we get a chance to go and spoil their homecoming and we are coming with that heat this week.”
Saturday’s game is scheduled to begin at 2p.m. in the Spartans’ William “Dick” Price Stadium.
